


Happenstance

by bimadabomi



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s07e19 Transition, F/M, One Shot Collection, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26944690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bimadabomi/pseuds/bimadabomi
Summary: A series of one-shots in Josh/Donna's relationship. Majority will most likely be post series.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 8
Kudos: 66





	1. Proposal

It’s a rare Saturday that they’ve got to themselves. No one has been called into work, national security issues are giving them a reprieve today. She knows he’s busy at work, and she sees the fact that he left work at work yesterday. There would’ve been a time in years past that he would’ve gone in on a Saturday, or brought work home with him, but true to his promise to her in Hawaii that he wants to have a life and doesn’t want everything to be about work anymore, he’s learned what work he can leave behind and when he can leave work behind (since so many times, he actually literally can’t).

It’s been a lazy morning and she knows these days are rare. They don’t venture out, as it’s rainy and dreary and going anywhere takes a little more planning and effort what with his secret service detail and all. She never would’ve imagined living a life like this, but here she was.

It’s the most mundane of days (although, mundane days are such a rarity for them, it’s almost not mundane and it’s instead special), so that’s why she’s surprised when she turns around in the middle of their apartment, contemplating if she should spend some time on this lazy Saturday doing laundry or just keep it all about doing nothing, only to find him down on one knee with a small velvet box in his hand.

She’s imagined this moment since they’ve been together (a moment she never imagined until then, with anyone else, or even in the hypothetical) but she never imagined it quite like this, in the middle of nothing and truly knocking her off kilter. Props to him for pulling off the element of surprise.

“ _Holy crap_ ,” the words tumble out of her mouth without processing through her brain. She realizes what she’s said and gasps at how unromantic it must have sounded, covering her mouth with her hand and then they’re both laughing, Josh raising his eyebrows at her.

The speech he’d had planned (or, planned to improvise) suddenly derailed, they take a moment to laugh together. “ _That’s_ what you have to say?” he asks, his voice cracking a bit as it often does in moments he’s caught off guard (by her, anyway. He doesn't get so easily rattled in politics).

“Sorry!” she giggles. She just takes in her circumstances, realizes she’s in sweatpants and a sweatshirt and she _didn’t even wash her hair today_ and here he is proposing to her at the most unexpected moment so yes: _holy crap._

“Look,” Josh says, trying to get things back on track with the planned-to-be-unplanned speech, “I’ve never been good at moments like this or at finding the words, but… I love you. That’s been a constant for so many years. The best thing I ever did was take that vacation and put life before work and I know that our life is busy and crazy and exhausting but somehow we make it work, and you put up with me. I know that I want this, forever. Now- when it’s this crazy life with crazy working hours and a security detail on all our dates and somewhere down the line when it’s not and it’s just you and me living life like normal.”

“Holy crap,” she says again, eyes widening as the words pop out of her mouth without permission from her brain. 

“ _Donna_ ,” he groans with a laugh. 

“It’s beautiful,” she says, gazing at the ring. She’s a little bit in shock and a lot of words are coming out of her mouth but she doesn’t remember approving any of them. She’s all over the place and she’s a little irritated with herself for commenting on the beauty of the ring before saying anything else, because aren’t you not supposed to care what the ring looks like, really?

“It’s, uh, actually a family heirloom,” he tells her. 

“Holy-“ 

“Don’t say it!” he cuts her off, and they’re both laughing, suddenly. “Can’t you say anything else?”

She grins, the shock of the moment starting to dissipate enough that she can be a part of it. She’s trying to process the little speech he just gave her and hopes she will remember it after this moment of shock, because she doesn’t want to forget the words. “Yes.”

“Okay,” he encourages her.

“No, I mean – yes… I can say _yes_.”

“Oh,” he realizes. He grins then and removed the ring and slides it on her finger. “If you want we can get you something new, I just thought this is the kind of thing you’d-“

“No,” she cuts him off immediately. “You’re right. I love it. I love _you_.” She kisses him softly once, then again, then one more time, unsure she can believe that this moment just happened in the middle of a rainy Saturday, in their living room, her in sweatpants and a sweatshirt (that, okay, might actually be his) with unwashed hair. “You just surprised me,” she explains her reaction and her repeated use of _holy crap_ as he pulls her into a hug and kisses her on the head, his lips lingering for a moment.

“I thought about doing it somewhere else, you know but…” he nods towards the door. “If we go out of the apartment we’re never alone and I wanted it to just be you and me.”

She looks down at her left hand, disbelief that she has this ring sparkling on her finger. “You sure about this?” she teases. 

“Are _you_ sure about this?” he retorts, quirking his eyebrow. 

“Yes," she says simply, not even reacting to his quip. "Now. Let's see how the ring looks without all these _clothes_ in the way."


	2. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh and Donna have the talk. Post Transition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doesn't ever writer have to write "the talk" at some point?

When Sam lectured him and demanded he take a vacation, at first he knew he had to do it because he needed Sam to be his deputy, and, judging by his ultimatum, that was the only way to get him to sign on. Then, by the time he was talking to the president-elect, he knew he had to do it for himself. Just the thought of getting away from all this for a little while had calmed him down. Sam was right – he wasn’t at his best. He was exhausted, he was starving (when was the last time he ate real food?), his mind was constantly spinning, he was easily irritated, monomaniacal apparently, he was stressed to the point he was lashing out at Otto and he’d become one of those guys who can’t be without their cell phone for ten minutes. Before he was even out of the building, though, he knew he also had to do it for Donna. He was stretching himself so thin that he couldn’t even carve out a space in four weeks ( _three weeks, six days _) to figure out what was going on with them? When he’d been waiting for something to go on with them for nine years?__

__If he let her slip away now, that would be it. Her unwavering dedication to the four-week timeline was clear (three weeks, six days, she’d shot back at him when he tried to tell her four weeks wasn’t enough time to figure this out in the midst of everything going on). He knew she was serious, and he didn’t think she was going to be too forgiving or willing to give second chances if he missed the four-week window._ _

__There was another time she kept asking him for a small chunk of his time for a meeting and when he didn’t make it a priority, she left. He had to have learned something here._ _

__In the back of his mind, he remembers Leo and the toll this job had taken on him – his health, his marriage. He’d tried to tell Sam that people can do this and have marriages. Sam had scoffed at him, because this job can take over your life. If he has a prayer of making anything with Donna work, he has to figure out some kind of balance._ _

__When he approaches Donna later, she’s weary and he knows this is because of how he’s been acting lately. She’s not sure what to expect from him, plus after he’d tried to tell her he didn’t have the time to think about them earlier today, she was probably worried what excuse he had lined up for her next._ _

__“Hey,” he says gently, letting his tone speak to his current state of mind. “I yelled at Otto,” he begins. Things had happened so fast today, he hadn’t had a chance to think about what he was going to say to her, no time to practice a speech. He’d rushed around, still buzzing from the Red Bull, trying to figure out how to manage getting this vacation scheduled._ _

__She quirks an eyebrow, and then frowns, because she has no idea what this means. “Why?”_ _

__“For no reason, really,” he says with a sigh. He knows he’s not making any sense, and he really doesn’t want to replay the conversation with Otto because he feels that embarrassed about how he acted. He should say something to Otto before he leaves, clear the air. “Sam said I’m nowhere near my best right now. He doesn’t want to work with me if I’m like this. I don’t blame him, really.”_ _

__Donna’s recent conversation with the president-elect replays in her mind, the worry he had about Josh’s recent behavior. Josh starts digging around in his pocket and she’s really not sure what to expect him to come up with – these days, it could be anything._ _

__He’s handing her a piece of paper and when she unfolds it, she realizes it’s airline tickets. He’s going out of town? He’s got someone else to go convince to join his staff? For a moment, she’s irritated. He’d told her in four weeks he can’t get a handle on what’s going on with them, but suddenly he has time for –_ _

__“Come with me,” he says, so softly, his eyes shining with excitement like he’s finally figured out the answer to everything. He takes her hands and adds, “Please.” She’s so taken aback she doesn’t know what to say. She’s honestly more surprised by this gesture than his flirtatious tone in Houston as they drank their glasses of scotch. “I really want you to come with me. We can talk – about us – no interruptions, we can just figure this out. Spend time together. No work, nothing.”_ _

__“Who are you, and what have you done with Josh Lyman?” she jokes, trying to process everything he’s throwing at her. She can’t believe he’s asking her on a vacation in the middle of transition and that he’s not running away from the talk. She feels a sense of hope. He doesn’t even respond to her quip, he just stands there looking at her nervously, expectantly. “Okay. Yes,” she tells him. Really, what the hell else would she say?_ _

__“You won’t regret this,” he assures her, a huge grin spilling across his face. “You and me, a week in the sun, on the beach, at the pool. Time together to talk. And _not_ talk.”_ _

__She smirks and feels a little thrill at his words, then she glances at the tickets and yelps, “ _Tonight?!_ ”_ _

__

__As the plane takes off, Josh stares out the window, thoughtfully. This is the first time in who knows how long that he doesn’t have his Blackberry in his hand (except for, of course, when Otto was charging it earlier today). He’s left everything at the office – laptop, Blackberry, paperwork. He doesn’t really even know what to do with his hands without checking his phone every few minutes. He momentarily wonders what’s going on at the office. He watches Washington DC get smaller and smaller as they ascend into the air._ _

__Everyone was right. The universe had been coming at him repeatedly to nudge him in the right direction. Amy told him it was time and gave him a name of someone to call, so he wouldn’t spend his life old and alone. Donna had called him monomaniacal, and not in a complimentary way. Sam kept praising his life in California and how he actually got to have a life, one which Lou had told Josh pointedly that he didn’t have. Donna had been forcing him to figure them out, to have the talk with her (or, not, and just let it go), and wasn’t about to let him off the hook and extend his four-week deadline. Without the vacation he might have put the job in front of her and let it all slip away._ _

__So here they were on a flight to Hawaii, just six hours later. He still can’t believe the whirlwind that was this day. When he woke up this morning, there’s no way he would have believed it if someone had told him he’d be going on vacation for a week that night._ _

__She’s flipping through pages of the in-flight magazine, humming to herself softly. He watches her for a moment. She looks good. She doesn’t look stressed. A few moments ago she’d been mentally running through what she’d packed in her suitcase and what she may have forgotten, but he seemed to get her to relax when he told her they wouldn’t be needing too many clothes anyway. She’s happy about her new job offer and she seems to be happy at what this gesture of the vacation means for them. He glances back out the window and notices that he can’t see DC anymore._ _

__He turns to her and traces a soft pattern on her leg. “Should we talk?” he asks. He hadn’t been planning on saying that right now, but suddenly he wants to say everything._ _

__She looks surprised and lets go of the magazine, the pages falling closed. “Now?”_ _

__He shrugs. It seems a good a time as any to him. On the airplane, work literally disappearing behind him, he knows what he wants to focus on. In Hawaii he wants to focus on Donna (and maybe, getting some sleep. And eating some real food). He doesn’t want this conversation lingering between them, making things uncertain. “Well, sure. I only have three weeks and six days left. It’s about to be knocked down to five.”_ _

__She chuckles softly. “You know, we’re changing time zones. You get to earn a few hours back.”_ _

__“I don’t need them,” he says, surprising himself._ _

__“You want to talk on the plane? You can’t hide on here.”_ _

__“I don’t want to hide,” he tells her simply._ _

__The fact he had decided to take this vacation, and then wanted her to come with him, had been a good sign. But she was still a little bit nervous about the words. “Okay.”_ _

__“Look, I…” he runs his hand through his hair as he tries to figure out how to say this in the simplest way possible without saying the wrong thing once again, the way he kept doing since Election Day. “The White House can’t be my life anymore.”_ _

__She raises her eyebrows at him. “Josh, you _do_ know you’re about to be Chief of Staff?”_ _

__“Yeah. I know. But the job can’t be everything anymore,” he says. “Everyone keeps talking about a life. And you… I don’t even have to question that. I want to do this with you.”_ _

__She grins, surprised at how easily the words come from his mouth, how sure and confident he is._ _

__“You want to have a life?” she repeats._ _

__“Yes.”_ _

__“And you want our relationship to be a part of said life?”_ _

__“Probably the majority of it, but yeah,” he confirms. “I mean I’m not looking to also take up a bunch of hobbies or racquetball anything.”_ _

__“Okay.”_ _

__There’s silence, and he feels like he should say more, but he doesn’t want to make it overly complicated. He doesn’t know if her okay means okay, she wants this too or okay, she understands his point. “If, you know… you want to,” he adds, suddenly insecure._ _

__She smiles at him softly and rubs his forearm. “Josh. Do you think I’d be on this airplane if I didn’t want to?”_ _

__“It’s not going to be perfect, Donna,” he tells her, truthfully. “The job… it… will come first sometimes.”_ _

__“I know that,” she assures him. This truly hadn’t even been a worry in her mind. She knows what it’s bound to be like. There’s no way she’s worked in the White House for seven years, watched how things worked, without understanding that anyone in the White House, let alone the Chief of Staff to the President, lives a normal life with normal working hours._ _

__“But it’s not going to come first _all_ the time,” he clarifies. “I know it sounds crazy for me to tell you that, because you know how much I put into this job. I can’t promise you that there won’t be nights I work late and I can guarantee you that I’ll cancel plans on you at the last minute sometimes, probably last _second_ , because I have to work instead. Even though I know you understand I’m sure you’ll still be mad about it sometimes. We’ll probably argue when the First Lady and the President don’t agree on their agenda, I’ll forget more than one thing I should remember, I don’t know when we’ll ever get a vacation again, and it is possible the Blackberry _will_ come to bed at some point. Oh, and we’re going to have a secret service agent following our every move come January.”_ _

__“I’m not worried about all that,” she insists. “I get all that.” What she had been worried about was what this was to him, what this meant to him and the fact that he’d just referenced their being together throughout his tenure as chief of staff seemed to answer her questions. “Besides, I’m more worried about you running your health into the ground by trying to survive on a cocktail of Starbucks, Red Bull, and antacids and less than three hours of sleep a night. _That_ , you can’t do to me. No excuses.”_ _

__He understands, he really does, because he’d just been thinking about Leo and his health and the toll this job had taken on him. Josh knows Leo had health problems before the job, but he also hadn’t seen Leo try to survive solely on caffeine and no sleep before he even took the position so he nods as he looks out the window momentarily. “Yeah. I know.”_ _

__“I know you can’t control it all, but you’ve got to eat better – or, eat, period - and slow down a little bit. Delegate. You’ve got Sam there for a reason. Get some sleep when you have the opportunity instead of working more just for sport. And,” she lowers her voice, thankful that the aisle seat next to them is empty despite the pretty full flight. “You should probably have a very healthy sex life.”_ _

__He chuckles at her words, taken aback from her lecture to her flirtatiousness. He wonders if this is _actually _real life, doing this with Donna? He continues tracing patterns on her leg and gently picks at her skirt. “Oh, yeah? Think you know someone who can help with that?”___ _

____“Maybe I do.” There’s a beat and she adds, “You know, I heard Sarah’s available if you want to give her a call.”_ _ _ _

____He groans, throwing his head back against the headrest, “Donna.”_ _ _ _

____She smirks and adds, “Just some incentive to come home sometimes.”_ _ _ _

____“Incentive or bribe?”_ _ _ _

____She bites her lip and grins at him, throwing him a wink. “Whatever works.” She leans in to kiss him softly, her lips lingering. She sighs and returns to her seat, feeling lighter after the conversation. “I took the job,” she adds, out of nowhere. In her rush to pack her bags and prepare for a week-long trip in the space hours, she’d managed to find the time to call Mrs. Santos and accept her offer._ _ _ _

____He reaches out and takes her hand, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. “Good for you.”_ _ _ _

____“I’m still not sure I really have the qualifications, but…”_ _ _ _

____“You’re gonna be amazing,” he tells her softly, sincerely. “When you quit,” he knows he needs to say this, too. “I wasn’t – I didn’t get it, that you wanted more, like you wanted to do something like _this_. In case you haven’t noticed I’ve had trouble separating work from the rest of my life and when you quit I didn't see you leaving a job. I saw you leaving my life.”_ _ _ _

____“You didn’t want me on the campaign…” she notes._ _ _ _

____“ _That_ was me being monomaniacal and focused anything that could even _potentially_ set the campaign back. No matter how much I missed you. That’s what this is about,” he gestures around the airplane. “Less tunnel vision. I’m sorry. About all that.”_ _ _ _

____“I’m sorry I quit like that.”_ _ _ _

____He waves her off and leans over to kiss her. “You deserve this job and I swear to God, Donnatella Moss, I’m completely serious when I say this: I hope you blow me off for work sometimes, just because you _want_ to work, because you deserve to really soak up this opportunity.”_ _ _ _

____She doesn’t know why this comment makes her grin so much, but it really does and she laughs. “I think that’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever said to me.”_ _ _ _

____“Just _wait_ until we get to Hawaii.”_ _ _ _


	4. Tunnel Vision

It had been an extremely long day (extremely), and though Donna had put in many days longer than this in the White House, both under President Bartlet and President Santos, those days and that exhaustion had been nothing compared to this.

Things have quieted down now, on the maternity ward. Visiting hours had just ended, and it’s the first peaceful moment their new little family has. She’d given birth in the early hours of the morning, prompting the perfect storm of being exhausted from labor and delivery (not to mention, the missed night’s sleep) leading right into a full day’s visiting hours. The visitors had been respectful of their time, and her exhaustion, but it had still been a full, busy day. On top of the visitors, her emotions, and her physical exhaustion, she was also mentally trying to adjust to the fact she was a mother now.

Now she’s feeling a bit more herself (though, she’d love some sleep) and she’s sitting up in her hospital bed, watching Josh who is standing near the window holding their daughter, gently swaying her in his arms. 

He’s studying her intently, possibly enamored with her, Donna thinks.

“She looks like you,” he finally states. When she doesn’t respond immediately, he finally tears his eyes off of her to look at his wife. 

“She’s less then 24 hours old, Josh. She doesn’t look like anyone,” Donna insists, sipping her water through the straw they had provided for her.

“No. She looks like you. I’ve spent enough years looking at you to know.” She realizes he doesn’t intend it to be as touching of a compliment as it really was, as he seemingly brushes his words off nonchalantly. “You’ll see.”

“You know what’s funny,” she muses. She momentarily wonders if it’s only funny because she’s running on about three hours of sleep in the past thirty-six hours, and none of them were consecutive, not to mention she’s got all kinds of drugs and painkillers still in her system. “You know how they always ask who was president when you were born? She’ll be able to say oh, you know, President Santos, the man my dad got elected.”

For his part, Josh chuckles, so her funny thought must have been at least somewhat amusing to others. Either that or he was humoring her, which was entirely possible as well.

She brought up President Santos, who had called earlier in the day to congratulate them, opting for the phone call instead of clearing the entire maternity ward for a visit. Which had been a good thing, because their secret service detail had already sufficiently freaked out a at least a few new mothers. She can see Josh’s thought process all too clearly. He’s still staring down at the baby, gently running a finger over her tiny fist. She’d called him monomaniacal once, (well, okay, more than once – but once to his face) and she can see it could easily happen again – the tunnel vision. Only now his mind is reeling in the opposite direction, his new position as father fueling him along.

“Y’know maybe I should think about-”

“No,” she cuts him off immediately. He looks confused at her interruption and frowns at her. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“I’m just saying that-”

“I know,” she assures him. “Your daughter isn’t even a day old. Let’s give this some time and see how it plays out first, okay? One step at a time. Don’t start thinking about quitting or demoting yourself or whatever it is you’ve got in your head just yet.”

“The hours, Donna, and the unpredictability of it all, it’s just… what if I look back and realize I missed the first years of her life because I was working?”

She shook her head. “We’ll see how it goes first.”

“Okay. Fine. But I’m only dropping this because I don’t think I should argue with you on the day you gave birth.”

She grins. “Accurate. And thank you.”

When she found out she was pregnant, they’d discussed their jobs and he had made it clear that if anyone had to step back, he wanted it to be him. He’d already had years as chief of staff, years as a deputy and a chaotic year running a campaign in between. She made him agree that they would see how they could make it work first. But now that he held their child in his arms, she could see him quickly second guessing his agreement, blinded by the love he had for their daughter after only hours.

For her part, she knew she could keep to her hours. It was Josh’s job that required all-nighters in the Sit Room when national security was in danger, it was his job that required him to spend hours working on one crisis or another. It was a lot easier to put down the first lady’s agenda and go home at the end of the workday than it was for him to put down a domestic terrorist attack or a burgeoning war in the Middle East. Since he’d taken this job- since Hawaii- she’d seen the effort he’d put into leaving work at work when he could, to bring things home if he had to get them done rather than stay in the office and work on them alone, to find ways to make sure he spent time with her even on his busiest days. 

Of course, a baby was a whole new ballgame. She knew there would be some evenings she would be on her own if he couldn’t get home. But if he was willing to give up his whole career for her to keep hers going, she could take a few nights on her own.

“Besides,” she adds, “If you keep the job, we keep the detail. Safest baby in the United States.”

He rolls his eyes playfully. “Now you’re bribing me with safety? You know my weaknesses.”

“Yes,” she laughed. “I do.” He’d been annoyed at the detail at first, but then there had been a close call or two and he never complained again.

“Josh?”

“Yeah?” he says softly, looking up from the baby to smile at her lovingly.

“You’re going to be a great dad.”


End file.
